Frontier Grit premieres

Performing Frontier Grit basically in the lobby of the Retreat at Carrollton.
[photo snapped by Holly Bagwell]

I am on the hustle for a while, like the old days. One idea I had was a short (40-45 minute) storytelling show about real-life events from the 1800s, from the American frontier. I am fascinated with that time period after the American Revolution thru the beginning of the 1800s up until the Civil War. 

I started working on it last month. I have been tinkering on a bunch of plays since the beginning of the year, but this was the first write-then-perform-it project I have had to sit down and see through to completion in a hot minute. The turn-around was faster than a lot of my shows usually are. Instead of several months, this was several weeks. And on this one, I was trying something new. Or new to me, at least.

I was trying straight-up storytelling this time. This meant I didn't need to stage a whole show and play a bunch of characters. Just a detailed recounting of a singular event.

People often confuse a one-person theatrical show with storytelling, just as they confuse stand-up comedy with storytelling sometimes. Solo performance is theatre. A solo play can span however much time it needs. It has a cohesive theme and is often fictional. It has a solid narrative structure, but the story is told from within, by the characters themselves. Storytelling, at least in its contemporary conception, concerns a single event, told by either the person if happened to or by an outside non-diagetic narrator. It is often nonfictional. The biggest difference is that theatre is acted, stories are told.

So, this was a tiny step outside my usual wheelhouse. 

The stories I chose to retell featured John Colter, a mountain man from the early 1800s who barefoot and naked outran a Blackfoot war party; Pamelia Mann, who loaned a yoke of oxen to General Sam Houston's Texas Army during the Texas Revolution and then personally confronted Houston to reclaimed her property; and Kit Carson who in his mid-twenties fought a duel with a towering French-Canadian trapper to defend the woman he loved.

I called the collection of three stories Frontier Grit. I was still memorizing and rehearsing earlier this week.

Memorizing is my least favorite part of performing. It is a slow, arduous process that has no real shortcuts. It is hard and requires uninterrupted focus. Lately, as I juggle many projects and most of it is done at a computer, memorizing these stories was a good reminder that somethings just take time and effort. One has to slow down. It is humbling and frustrating to have to stick with one project for days at a time, sometimes weeks. This means I can't launch into something else. For a while one, difficult thing occupies my entire world.

I don't mind doing hard things. In fact, I feel I am predisposed to tackle more grueling, challenging things more so than a lot of the people around me. But sometimes, I need a stiff reminder. Sometimes, I need something to throw me into the briar patch. This process was a good reminder about all this.

My friend Holly helped me set up a gig for me at the senior living facility she works at. It is called Retreat at Carrollton. She had set me up last summer with a few gigs at other senior facilities where I performed my solo show Robert's Eternal Goldfish.

So, yesterday, August 20th, Frontier Grit had its first audience. The show went relatively well. I felt about 80-85% about the whole thing. The folks at Retreat seemed to dig it. There were maybe a dozen and a half spectators.

It definitely needs to be tightened up and, dare I say, some staging. Now it is just a guy standing basically stationary for 45 minutes in the middle of the room. Visually, it has no levels..

I am so grateful for the opportunity to share my art with folks no matter where I am performing. 

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